Okunen
by Silindro
Summary: Oneshot. They say when you're close to death you start to see and talk to the people that no one else knows are there. Inuyasha's come to take Kagome home six hundred years after the well has closed.


**_Okunen: n. something one always remembers._**

Standard disclaimers apply.

**Okunen --- ---**

_**Kono hateshinaku hiroi sekai no mada minu rakuen mezashite.**_

_Head for a paradise that you can't see yet in this endlessly wide world._

_Rakuen – Do As Infinity (Inuyasha: Guren no Houraijima end theme)_

Looking around her shrine home, Kagome Higurashi wondered when exactly she had become so old. The years had passed seamlessly as her life had faded in and out in an imperceptibly lengthy amount of time since the well had closed. The trials and tribulations that she and the rest of the shard-seeking group had fought against had come to an end with the final completion of the Shikon no Tama and the destruction of Naraku.

Their quest had finished itself and they had all gone on their separate ways, never to meet again. It pained Kagome to think about the friends she had lost, but they were such a large part of what had shaped her life that she couldn't let them go.

Reaching for her cane, she made her way slowly to the window to watch the wind blow the leaves on the trees. It was becoming colder outside and the leaves on the unusually large tree were turning into hues of red and brown and yellow. Some of them were strewn about the courtyard in an untidy manner that she didn't care to worry about anymore.

_If the leaves bother anyone, then let them sweep up the mess_, she thought to herself.

Goshinboku, the God tree, had withstood the ages that her friends had not. All things must die, and so they had long ago in a place that was forever out of reach but not out of mind. She often thought of the Sengoku Jidai in a fond manner, though her time there had been mostly full of struggle.

Touching the window with her tired hand, she remembered the hanyou that she had loved so long ago in her youth, nearly six hundred years ago in a place that no one living should have been able to remember. She remembered him best as overbearing and obsessive, but her heart remembered him best as the hanyou that had made a thousand promises without ever saying a word.

"Inuyasha," she whispered softly.

She often wondered if he had ever forgotten her, if her name had gone unspoken for so long that there was no memory left. It was a pathetic thing to ponder over. Of course he wouldn't forget about Kagome Higurashi, the miko that had helped save Japan.

Frowning, she questioned whether or not being remembered as a miko rather than a friend was the favorable thing. Much more so, she wanted to be remembered as the lover that never was and the heartbreak that never went away.

The pain of loss and longing had kept Kagome lonely throughout her life, never taking solace in another's arms. The guilt of betraying the love she had felt for Inuyasha was an ache that she couldn't bear to withstand. In time she had learned to take joy from the simpler things in life. The laughter of children, sunrises, and even a hot cup of refreshing tea in the afternoon.

"Kagome…"

Sometimes she even thought she could hear him calling her name in the wind, his rough voice yelling from somewhere distant that she could never find or be. Even more had this happened lately, and she would berate herself for being foolish enough to follow the sound of the imaginary call.

Deciding it was time for a much needed cup of tea, she moved slowly into the kitchen to boil some water. The warm beverage would help her relax her tired muscles and temporarily forget about the occasional aches and pains of growing old. Maybe she would add some honey or some mint as an extra treat.

Reaching for her favorite cup, she wondered if her vision wasn't going bad as well. Sometimes she could see red shadows out of the corner of her eye. Of course there was nothing there when she turned to make sure, and she felt even more foolish for thinking that a hanyou in his bright red hakama and haori would be standing there with his arms wide open and inviting.

Breathing in deeply the smell of her tea, she wondered how much longer she could go on living in a world that was empty and hollow without someone there to love her and be loved in return. How long had it been since she had held another person just to hold them and tell them how much she loved them just because she could?

Even Souta was gone and his heirs spread about the country wrapped up in their own lives. No time was there for a forgotten old woman that lived alone with her dreams.

Washing her cup and putting away her things, she wandered back to the window. It was getting late and the shadows were drawing themselves into the night. Another weary day had come and gone and soon the morning would dawn again into another day of routines.

Deciding that she would wait a while for bed yet, she sat back down in her favorite chair and opened a book that she browsed through when her mind needed a rest from thinking. She flipped through the torn, used pages as the text flashed by, the story ingrained in her mind. She had read the book many times and enjoyed its tale. The classical damsel in distress, a dashing hero and his sidekicks…

"Oi, wake up!"

Kagome startled awake, obviously having fallen asleep in the midst of reading. Whoever had woken her up was going to have another thing coming to them. The nerve of shouting at an old woman!

"Just who do you think you-"

Kagome stopped mid-sentence as the blur of red that she always thought she saw didn't disappear when she turned to look at it. The sleeve of the haori was just as she remembered it in her dreams, and the hand that gripped her gently was just as she remembered it when she tried so hard to forget.

"You ain't dreamin' this time," he smirked.

Kagome took in a deep breath as she stared intently at Inuyasha's face, too scared to move and too choked up to speak. Her eyes watered helplessly as her mind tried to make sense of his presence.

"I didn't wait six hundred years to see you cry," he said, kneeling down in front of her and taking her hands in his own.

"_Baka_," she cried out, falling forward into his arms. He caught her and held her close, burying his nose in her hair and taking in the scent that he had missed more than anything else in heaven or earth. He ran a hand along her back to soothe her sobs and bask in the feel of the warm body.

"I've been seeing you everywhere," she admitted when the tears had died down. She nuzzled his throat. "I swear I've heard your voice a hundred times. But it couldn't be true. _This_ can't be true."

"I've been waiting on you for weeks, following you around this place."

Inuyasha stood and pulled Kagome to her feet, holding her at arm's length. He looked her up and down, grinning at his Kagome's perfection. She was just as he had remembered, perfect.

Leaning down, he captured her lips in a heated kiss of greeting and longing. She wasn't surprised at the gesture, instead embracing the kiss with an equal, unrestrained passion that consumed them both. He pulled her close, holding her as tightly as he could without crushing her small body in his strong grasp. She held tight around his neck, melting their bodies together in a closeness that they had never physically shared in their crossed paths.

"How is this possible?" she asked, leaning her forehead against his own.

"Anything is possible in death," he answered, running a clawed hand through her dark locks.

She leaned back a little, curiosity and a little bit of shock marring her face. She hadn't expected that kind of an answer. Of course it made sense when she thought about it. She had far reached her life's expectation, and when she took a good look, she realized that she had none of the signs of age that her body had developed over the years. The wrinkles and the spots and the grey hair were all gone. She presumed to look like her youthful self.

Tossing a look over her shoulder, she could see herself still laying in the chair with the forgotten book in her lap. She was still and lifeless.

"It doesn't bother me," she said, shaking her head. "Not as much as I would have thought."

"Course it doesn't," Inuyasha replied. "You're with me now."

"And where are we going?" she asked inquisitively.

"Home," he grinned.

Wrapped up in themselves, the hanyou and his love faded away like stars in the dawning sky with their intertwined fate nestled comfortably in the arms of each other.

--- --- ---

a/n: There was an article in the paper where someone interviewed hospice workers. A couple of the people talked about how the patients talk to people no one else can see when they're close to death. It gave me the idea of this story, only Kagome was supposed to see everyone, not just Inuyasha. Didn't turn out like I had hoped, but I'm still pleased.

I have written lots of Inuyasha fic, but this is my first InuKag, I think. Bah, who cares. Let me know what you think, and if I should write more InuKag in the future.

_Baka_ – Stupid or idiot.

It's a fanfiction sin to read without reviewing.


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